In a couple weeks we are going to go through a domain name change to remove an underscore character from the name. Has anyone gone through this?

Our 2 domain controllers are 2008R2 and our exchange is 2003, and I've heard this is the best combination of things for a domain name change.

I'm sure there will be lots of manual cleanup of things, and this is something we have to do because there are a few things out there now that don't allow the Underscore characters in the domain name as how it was allowed in the past.

We are documenting as much as we can think of that has the domain name plugged into, and am sure there will be many things we need to iron out the week after we do this. Any helpful tips from anyone before we flip the switch?

4 Replies

1st Post

I've done it twice before, and the best advice I can give you is to read ALL of Microsoft's guidance on renaming Windows domains, and follow it precisely. It will tell you everything you need to know, but none of it is mere suggestion. Treat it as prescriptive, write out your plan accordingly, and stick to your plan.

Oh, and have complete and verified-good backups of everything. That probably goes without saying.

Yea, I'd virtualize everything, then I'd create the new domain on new vm server, create a 2-way, or 2 1-way (whatever the terminology is now) trust relationship between the old domain and new domain so you have both domains in production.

Then configure exchange to handle email on the new domain in addition to your existing domain (which Exchange 2003 does fairly well!) - do some testing with moving test users and computers to make sure you have done everything correctly, then start moving everyone over.

We're going through this now and so far has gone rather well. Of course, we've had the benefit of virtualisation for everything from the DC's to print servers and the sign off of whatever funds we need to make it work and for a clean changeover.

One of the biggest things we have need to overcome is that our domain name (email) will be staying the same. Good luck in yours, the others have provided all the points that I would have made.

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